A co-worker reported that in any NEW document she creates, starting just this afternoon, newly typed text flashes. That is, first you see what you've typed and then you don't, and back and forth, quickly. In 2003 we'd have gone to the 3rd tab in Format-Font, but that tab has been removed in 2007.

We cured the problem by deleting Normal.dotm and reopening Word, so that a new Normal would be generated.

But this doesn't solve the mystery, and I'm so curious about it -- does anybody know where a "flashing font" setting might be, in Word 2007?

It does seem like Microsoft have realised the uselessness of this blinking text feature and removed it from the interface. They haven't actually removed the ability to do it though. One way is to paste in text from a document created in an earlier version. Another way is to use VBA to do it.

Thank you, Andrew, I will peruse and use this as soon as I get a chance! And I've obtained a copy of the faulty .dotm to play with, so I will be having a fun little Word "lab session" soon! I'll post any interesting discoveries.

If the flashing text was applied manually (I suppose someone might make flashing text part of a style...), then you should be able to select the flashing text and press Ctrl+SpaceBar. This clears manually applied formatting. If it is part of a style, just switch to another style, delete the flashing style and rebuild without the flashing text.